REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by spokespersons for the International Organization for Migration, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Health Organization.

Geneva Activities

The Conference on Disarmament was meeting in plenary this morning, said Mr. LeBlanc, noting that New Zealand had taken up the presidency from the Netherlands for the last part of the 2015 session, which would mainly be focused on preparing the Conference’s annual report to the United Nations General Assembly.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was today considering the report of Mauritius. It would start its review of Brazil this afternoon, and this week would also review Qatar and the European Union. A background press release with the programme of work is available here.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was meeting in private until Friday 28 August, when there would be a public meeting to close the session and issue the Committee’s concluding observations for the reports of Colombia, Costa Rica, Niger, Suriname, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Czech Republic, Norway and Netherlands. A background press release with the programme of work is available here.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families would start a new session on Monday 31 August, considering the reports of Cape Verde, Guinea, the Seychelles and Timor-Leste. A background release would be published on Thursday.

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), announced that a press conference would take place at 12.15 p.m. on Tuesday, 1 September 2015 in Press Room I to present the 2015 Report on UNCTAD's assistance to the Palestinian People. Mahmoud Elkhafif, Coordinator of UNCTAD Assistance to the Palestinian People, and Randa Jamal, Economic Affairs Officer, would be speaking. The report was embargoed until 1 September at 5 p.m. GMT, she noted.

Tarik Jašarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), reminded the press that a virtual press conference would take place at 5:15 p.m. today, Tuesday, 25 August 2015, on the outcomes of the first meeting of the Review Committee on the Role of the 2005 International Health Regulations in the Ebola Outbreak and Response.

Re-imprisonment of former Maldives President

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said the High Commissioner has expressed his deep concern to the Government of the Maldives after former President Mohammad Nasheed was once again sent to prison late on Sunday.

OHCHR had been encouraged by the Government’s earlier decision to move Mr. Nasheed to house arrest after widespread national and international criticism of the clearly flawed trial, which resulted in him being sentenced to 13 years in jail in March this year. Mr Nasheed was, however, suddenly transferred on Sunday night to the high-security prison on Maafushi Island, said Mr. Colville. OHCHR also understood that force, including pepper spray, was used against his supporters who gathered in the narrow alley around his residence to show their solidarity and protest against his renewed imprisonment.

OHCHR had conducted two missions to Maldives in recent months to discuss these issues with the authorities, and had visited Mr Nasheed both in jail and when he was under house arrest at his residence. The return of Mr. Nasheed to prison in OHCHR’s view constituted a serious set-back to the human rights situation as well as to moves towards finding a political solution in the Maldives.

The High Commissioner therefore urged the Government to consider former President Nasheed’s early release, said Mr. Colville, and OHCHR also urged the review of pending criminal cases against several hundred opposition supporters in relation to the protests in recent months.

Mona Rishmawi, Head of Rule of Law for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), who had carried out two missions to Maldives in recent months, responded to questions from the press. She noted that the Maldives would undergo its Universal Periodic Review later this year. She also said OHCHR would welcome assistance from the media in publicising the case.

The briefing note can be found here: http://ow.ly/RkEON

Refugees in Europe

Melissa Fleming, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), called for refugees to be treated humanely and for the authorities to work together, as thousands of people continued to head into the Western Balkans from Greece.

In Serbia, UNHCR and the Serb authorities were working to respond to the humanitarian needs of the more than 10,000 refugees and others who had now arrived there in the wake of the dramatic scenes of the last few days at the Greek border with The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

At the Greece-The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border, people had been continuing to cross in groups of up to 300-400 and then travelling onwards by train or bus to Serbia. Currently, UNHCR anticipated those arrivals continuing over the next few days at a rate of up to 3,000 people per day, said Ms. Fleming.

Thanks to a number of interventions the situation had calmed significantly from the chaotic scenes of late last week, but UNHCR was still very concerned about the conditions for people making the journey. Many were from countries affected by violence and conflict such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. They were often physically exhausted and psychologically traumatized, and they were often in need of humanitarian and medical assistance, especially the sick, pregnant women and elderly persons. It was vital that those people were treated humanely and that essential assistance was provided; not only responding to their basic needs but also fully respecting the dignity and human rights of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants.

UNHCR appealed to the Governments involved to implement border management measures with humanity and in accordance with their international obligations, said Ms. Fleming, adding that family unity and protection of persons with specific needs must be upheld.

UNHCR had deployed staff at key locations including border areas to help address some of the protection needs, and in coordination with the authorities and with partners was distributing food and water, providing some shelters and sleeping mats and blankets. It was ready to further support the Governments involved.

UNHCR was very concerned about the sustainability of the situation as the flow of people was not slowing. There were record levels of forcibly displaced people in the world and it was clear the situation could not be resolved by one country alone. A comprehensive European solution among the 28 Members States of the European Union, not just a few, was needed. Germany and Sweden had taken 43 per cent of asylum seekers and proportionately smaller countries, such as Austria, had taken in huge numbers of asylum seekers. Much more needed to be done to help those countries whose capacities were already overstretched such as Greece, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Italy. An equitable redistribution of refugees and asylum seekers across the European Union was needed, said Ms. Fleming.

It was important to remember that Syrian refugees made up the largest group of asylum seekers in Europe, said Ms. Fleming. There were still above four million Syrian refugees in the region, and people were feeling compelled to move from those countries – such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon – for Europe. UNHCR reiterated its call for more support to those countries which were supporting the vast number of Syrian refugees, said Ms. Fleming, saying the funding situation was pitiful and it was no wonder refugees were moving on to Europe.

More information can be found in the briefing note here: http://ow.ly/RkH3x

Responding to questions Ms. Fleming said the rise in numbers of refugees crossing into Europe was surprising every day and was related to developments outside of our control, such as what was happening in Syria and humanitarian funding situations in neighbouring countries. News that a fence may be built in Hungary, just anecdotally, could cause many refugees to rush to Europe before the fence was erected, she said. Until the conflict in Syria ended and the humanitarian situation changed, no easing of migrant flows into Europe could be expected. The desperation was so great people were still risking their lives to cross to Europe by sea in terrible weather conditions.

Asked about people smugglers, Ms. Fleming said the going rate for the trip from Turkey to Greece was around $1,000 per person and smugglers were asking for massive sums of money for each leg of the journey.

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reported that children were moving towards Greece’s border with The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. UNICEF estimated that some 30 per cent of the approximate 1,500 to 2,000 migrants and refugees arriving at the border were children. The children were disturbed and often suffering from stress or trauma.

In response UNICEF had established a child-friendly space with a mobile team near Geveglija town, at the border with Greece, to provide much needed support to women and children on the move through The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The child-friendly space had been set up within the compounds of a rest area for migrants established by UNHCR, and could support up to 50 children at one time. The space provided a safe place for children to rest and play while their families completed registration procedures. It also helped decrease the tension engendered by this dire humanitarian situation, said Mr. Boulierac.

A mobile team from the local non-governmental organization LaStrada was helping to reunite children with their families and providing psychological support and early childhood development services to the children, he added.

Many children from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were leaving to escape conflict there, and children traveling alone without their parents or any other adult were at high risk, said Mr. Boulierac. Those children faced a future without education, and limited access to justice and heath care. At times, they had been subjected to detention and border control practices that endangered their lives and did not respect the Convention on the Rights of the Child, he added.

UNICEF urged the authorities to recognize and treat all migrant children, no matter what their legal status, religion or affiliation, first and foremost as children with rights, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. They must receive special care and attention as well as non-discriminatory and consistent protection. Children should not be detained, deported or separated from their family. UNICEF continued to monitor the situation on the ground and was working with local authorities to ensure children were protected, concluded Mr. Boulierac.

Responding to questions, Mr. Boulierac said the child-friendly space was also intended to help with family reunification but a real challenge was the increasing number of arrivals. There was also the question of how unaccompanied children were considered by the authorities. In answer to another question, he said that, according to official statistics from the Ministry of Interior, in the period 19 June to 25 August 2015, a total of 714 unaccompanied minors were registered.

Refugee clashes in Germany

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), responding to a question about recent attacks on refugees in Germany, said it was utterly disgraceful to attack very vulnerable people, many of whom had gone through terrible experiences in their own countries and then undergone incredibly difficult and dangerous journeys. To be attacked in that way by far-right groups was utterly reprehensible. OHCHR welcomed the strong comments by Chancellor Merkel on the issue.

The situation was reminiscent of what happened in the 1990s when large numbers of refugees from the Balkans went to Germany and experienced a spate of very unpleasant attacks by far-right thugs. Obviously the authorities should do all they could to prevent such attacks.

People should be aware of the rise across Europe of such vitriolic rhetoric towards refugees and migrants, which referred to them as if they were some sort of sub-human species coming to attack the continent, said Mr. Colville. He also said media commentators should take care because their words could potentially lead to injury and even death.

Responding to a question about whether a person could be prosecuted for hate speech, Mr. Colville said if the situation reached a point of incitement to hatred on specific grounds then it should be outlawed in national legislation as a reflection of international human rights law, including Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Executions in Iraq

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said OHCHR was concerned by reports of continued political violence and the killings of protestors. It was dismayed to learn of the execution of a man, Farhad Jaafar Mahmood, and his two wives, Khuncha Hassan Ismaeil and Berivan Haider Karim, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. They were convicted in April 2014 for the crimes of kidnapping and murdering two girls, and hanged at 2 a.m. on 12 August.

Those were the first executions to have taken place in seven years, after the Kurdistan Regional Government established an informal moratorium on the use of the death penalty in 2008, said Mr. Colville. OHCHR, he said, was deeply disappointed by the new development. The United Nations opposed the use of the death penalty, even for the most serious crimes. OHCHR urged the Kurdistan Regional Government to recommit to and formalise its unofficial moratorium on the use of the death penalty. A growing number of States had abolished this practice, in accordance with several General Assembly resolutions, he noted.

The briefing note can be found here: http://ow.ly/RkEON

Political violence in Nepal

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said OHCHR was concerned by reports of continued political violence and the killings of protestors in Nepal. Seven members of the security forces and three protestors were reportedly killed yesterday. The two-year-old son of one deceased police officer was also killed.

Those deaths came in addition to the deaths of five protestors during widespread demonstrations since an 8 August agreement by political parties on redrawing internal state boundaries. The agreement was the product of extended negotiations to draw up a new constitution further to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the ten-year internal conflict in 2006. Since the political agreement was reached, increasingly violent protests and strikes against the proposed delineation have taken place throughout the country.

OHCHR urged the Government of Nepal to create a climate where minority or dissenting views or beliefs were respected, and security forces only employed force as a last resort and in full accordance with the standards laid out under international law for maintaining public order, including detailed guidelines governing the use of live ammunition.* Moreover, protestors should not pursue violent confrontations with the security services. OHCHR also urged political leaders and protestors to sit down together to find a peaceful solution to the current situation before the rising violence spirals out of control.

Finally, Mr. Colville said OHCHR fully supported the call of the Nepal National Human Rights Commission for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into all deaths and injuries resulting from the alleged use of disproportionate force by security personnel, as well as into the deaths of the seven security personnel killed on Monday.

The briefing note can be found here: http://ow.ly/RkEON

Mediterranean Migrants

Joel Millman, for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), said that, as of this morning, 2,373 migrants had died attempting to reach Europe by sea this year. Over the last 365 days IOM had recorded the deaths of 3,573 migrants attempting to reach Italy, Greece and Spain. This constituted an average of nearly 10 migrants perishing at sea every day.

It was alarming how quickly those figures were increasing, often on an hourly basis, said Mr. Millman. The 2015 total to date – of 2,373 people on all sea routes to Europe - was barely 1,000 short of the total death toll for 2014, of 3,281. IOM was concerned that as summer turned to autumn and then winter, the number of further deaths at sea could well surpass 2,000 in the final third of 2015.

There is more information in the briefing note here: http://www.iom.int/press-room.

Ebola in Sierra Leone

Tarik Jašarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said the final Ebola patient had been discharged in Sierra Leone as a countdown began to the country being declared free of the disease. The patient had been discharged from the treatment centre after testing negative for Ebola twice, as per the normal procedure.

The President of Sierra Leone had attended a ceremony and World Health Organization had started a 42-day countdown corresponding to the incubation period, after which it could declare the end of Ebola transmission in Sierra Leone.

However, Mr. Jašarevic noted that, even after 42 days, the Ebola crisis would not be considered over as long as there were cases in other countries. The work continued to find people through the contact tracing programme and maintain capacity in both Sierra Leone and in Guinea.

Responding to a question about Ebola in Guinea, Mr. Jašarevic said there was an average of three cases per week there. These all came from the contact list and therefore via known transmission chains. Liberia would hopefully be declared free from Ebola transmission on 5 September 2015, he noted.

Libya

Melissa Fleming, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said UNHCR in Libya had managed to distribute aid to tens of thousands of displaced people in and around Tripoli and in the south-west over the past month. That was despite some of the heaviest fighting in the country’s south since civil war resumed in May 2014. However, UNHCR had been unable to reach thousands more in need. It called on all parties to allow access to humanitarian organizations, said Ms. Fleming.

More information can be found in the briefing note here: http://ow.ly/RkH3x